Welcome Tilly to RAGOM! She is a beautiful cream colored 9 week old, 14-pound puppy - ½ GR, ¼ yellow lab and ¼ Australian Shepherd. She has been with us for a week and is a very well adjusted girl. Her siblings are blind, but Tilly showed them the ropes. She is doing great on potty training, mostly outside – but if not she goes at the door on the towel/papers when I don’t get to her in time J. I can only carry two out at a time!

She has been to the vet and received all her puppy shots. We also brought her to an eye specialist because of her siblings. At this time she has normal puppy eyes, but we are still keeping an “eye” on them. She might need eye drops at some point.

She plays well with her siblings, our resident 2 yr old, and all of the children she has met 7-15 years old. She does have those sharp baby teeth!! She is a joy to be with – lots of puppy kisses and cuddles. She plays hard, takes lots of cap naps, is crate trained and sleeps thru the night!

If you would like to meet this adorable gal, please contact your RAGOM placement advisor.

UPDATES:

03/11/2012:

First off I want to say a big THANK YOU to the RAGOM transport team. Thank you Dennis and Joanne, Craig, and Karen! I had a great time riding with ya all while making my way to North Dakota. I told FM I gave you a ton of puppy kisses to say thank you!

Wow! Boy do I love life! The weather has been so great that all the snow here in North Dakota is melting. There is snow, slush, ice, mud, and water all in FM's back yard. I'm having a ball running thru all of it with the resident dogs. All of us worked on making sure we got good and muddy. We were told to live it up today, because we were going to get baths in the evening. I had such a fun time running around after a frisbee and playing with the resident dogs. Not once did I try to wander off. I even went up on the back porch to take a nap with the resident lab while FD did yard work (scooping poop...not a job I would want). Well, I'm off to take a nap! Today just wore me out! Tomorrow FM is taking me out for a walk on a leash!

FM here! Tilly is an absolute joy to foster. I really don't think you could find a cutier, smarter, more lovable puppy. She is your typical puppy in that she wants to chew on anything and you included (those puppy teeth are sharp). However, we are working on "No". She picked it up fast. Tilly is also amazing when it comes to house training. The little girl goes to the door and does this cute little whine to go out...and she is only 9 weeks old today!!!! Tilly also does well in a crate at night or sleeping curled up next to you. Her favorite place to take a nap is next to someone or in their lap.

Tilly does wonderfully with our resident dogs. She loves to play with them and understands when they have had enough and need a break. Tilly loves to take the dog toys and make a collection of them in one of our dog beds.

Contact your placement advisor about this amazing little girl. She will bring so much love into your home!

03/23/2012:

Hey there ya all! I'm having such a good time here at my fosters, but I would really love to find my furever family. I'm still a growing puppy, so I'm learning more about myself everyday. With all the nice weather we have been having I have been able to go outside with the resident dogs to play a lot. I've discovered the joys of doing zoomies around the yard with resident dog Hank. Hank also showed me how to roll in the grass just the right way. Boy is that fun! I also learned that I love to jump in a pile of leaves and then chase the leaves as they start to fly off. FM was kind enough to keep raking leaves into a pile for me to jump into. She said I was just too cute. FM also brought out more dog toys for us to play with. I love to fetch tennis balls and this flying squirrel frisbee thing. Of course, if I find a stick that will do too. As for playing inside, I love all toys and dogs to play with. When I'm ready to relax I look for one of my fosters to curl up with. I love cuddle time!

Oh, I forgot to tell you...I went to the vet again. Boy am I getting sick of going to the vet. There is always a needle involved. However, I'm still a really good girl, so I sit nice and still for the vet while he gives me another shot. FM says that all doggies have to have these shots so that we won't get really sick. I also got my microchip while I was there too. The vet weighed me while we were there and I'm just about 18 lbs!

FM says that I'm doing well with my training...whatever that means. I know sit, because I always have to sit while FM or FD feed us doggies. Boy do I park my butt on that floor as fast as I can when it is time for a meal! FM has also been taking me for walks on a leash. She says I do a great job sticking by her side. Although, sometimes I like to stop and sniff something. Did I mention I'm doing a great job with the house training. I've only had one accident and that was all FM's fault. She was busy giving one of the resident dogs a bath, because he found some cat poop to roll in (I told him not to do it). Well, she couldn't see me at the door or hear me over the noise of the bath and the lecture she was giving Hank about not rolling in poop (I already swore to her that I would never roll in poop). I felt really bad about it. FM said that it wasn't my fault and took me outside to see if I had to go some more.

Well, it is going to be nice and warm again today. Time for me to grab my buddy Hank and head outside for some playtime and grass rolling!

FM here! Tilly is doing wonderfully in our home. As much as we love her she needs to find her "furever" home, so that family can bond and enjoy her puppy cuddles and kisses. As Tilly told you she is enjoying the great outdoors. We have been outside a lot and have taken her hiking and to the golf course. She loved collecting the golf balls! Tilly would do great in a home with a fence or being on a tie-out. She is starting to get braver and wants to check out what surrounds our yard. We have also had quite a few visitors in the past few weeks (ages 4 and up) and Tilly did wonderfully with them all. Not once did she try to knock any of the little kids down. While at the vet Tilly came into contact with a cat and completely ignored it, so I'm guessing that cats would not be an issue for her. The vet said that Tilly is in great shape and is healthy as can be. We have been working on teaching Tilly basic commands (sit, come, stay). She is very food motivated and is picking up on her training quickly.

04/11/2012:

Hey there ya all! Not too much new to report. I went to the vet yesterday....yet again. However, FM said it was my last round of shots for awhile! YEA! I'm sick of getting stabbed with a needle. Foster mom did say something about me getting spayed this month, but that I shouldn't worry about that right now. Everyone at the vets loved me. I weighed in at 24.5 pounds. I'm a growing girl! Oh, I almost forgot...Easter. I learned a new game! It is called "Steal the Easter Eggs". Boy is it fun. My buddy, Hank, (resident dog) and I would snatch eggs out of FM and FD's son's Easter basket when he wasn't looking. FM said she got a picture of us stealing some. I would run with them to one of the doggie beds and try to hide it. I didn't do a very good job, because FM would just take it from me. Oh yea, I'm really good with the command "drop" now. I also found a new hiding spot in the living room. The coffee table! I love to climb into it and then attack one of the passing resident dogs as they go by. It is a ton of fun! FM had to move her books and magazines so I could have more room in there. Well, it is sunny out and Hank is bugging me to go outside and run around the yard with him. Hope ya all had a good Easter and got to keep your eggs!

Foster mom here! Tilly is still a super special girl and doing so well. She had a great check-up at the vets and we are scheduling her spay for this month. She is doing well with her training. We are still working on the "come" command. Tilly doesn't want to come unless her buddy Hank is coming too. We are also working on walking on a leash without her holding the leash in her mouth. She loves to grab onto the leash and start prancing with her tail up. We fenced in our whole yard a week ago, so the dogs have been able to really run and play outside without tie outs or me following them around. Tilly likes to pretend she is exploring new lands in our bushes, and Hank is trying to teach her how to dig for gold in there adventures. Hank can be a bad influence sometimes. Tilly will need a home with a fenced in yard or with a tie out. She always wants to go after bikes, and I'm afraid she will try to chase a car someday.

Contact your placement adviser if you would like to adopt this super special girl. Tilly is such a cuddle bug who will always look for your lap to curl up in.

04/28/2012:

Well, it is raining buckets and buckets outside, so I thought I would put a new update in for y'all (foster mom has been nagging me to do it). With all this rain I've been stuck inside. Of course, Hank and I got fed up with it and decided we were going to play in 50 mph winds and a downpour last evening. Foster mom thought we were nuts...after being cooped up for days can you blame us? She ended up going outside with us for a bit too. Foster mom wanted to show her son how strong the winds were, so she threw a tennis ball into the wind and if flew right back to her. Well, I thought that was pretty neat, so I grabbed my squirrel frisbee to try it myself. I threw it into the air, and sure enough it flew right back at me and hit me in the face. That was not so neat. I don't think I'll be playing with my frisbee for awhile now. Things are pretty normal. We did have some nice hot days at the beginning of the week. I have learned that I don't like temps above 70 degrees. It is just too dang hot when it is in the 80s. I would go outside with the whole family to play, and then after 15 minutes I had to go in for a drink and lay down to cool off. Everyone else stayed outside and enjoyed sweating. They are nuts! Foster mom reminded me that they are all from Florida, so 80 degree temps are wonderful.

Foster dad shot a turkey and brought it home. He hung it up in a tree while he was cleaning his truck. Well, I thought this big bird was a new toy and tried to play with it. Foster dad got a good picture of me trying to play with the turkey hanging from the tree. I wish we could have played fetch with that turkey...boy would that have been fun! Did I mention that I love to play fetch? I'm really good at it too. I'll bring whatever toy you throw right back to you and drop it in your had when you give me the "drop" command. Really, I could play fetch all day!

I'm gonna let foster mom give you some more updates on me and my needs now. Hope ya all are enjoying playing in the rain as much as I am!

Tilly is still a super special girl and we love fostering her. Right now Tilly is picking up on training really well...except for "come." She is a stubborn little bugger when it comes to learning that command. Honestly, I think she knows it and just chooses to ignore us when we work with her learning "come." Tilly would thrive in an obedience class. We would also like to see Tilly go to a home with another furbutt in it. She loves having another dog to play with and learn from. Tilly is doing so well with learning to walk on a leash. She and I no longer argue with each other about her having the leash in her mouth for the whole walk. Instead, I only have to tell her "no" the first few times she tries to grab on to the leash. After that she just walks right by your side and enjoys the scenery and smells. The most amazing thing about Tilly is that she has only had one "accident" in our house and that was my fault. Whenever she has to "go do her business" she will go to the door and sit down. This has caused me to lecture our other two dogs and question them as to why they were not house trained from the beginning. Like I keep saying, Tilly is a super special little girl.

I should let you all know that we have allowed Tilly to curl up on the furniture and bed with us. She is a little love bug that just wants to curl up with you when she is tired. I must admit that I love it when she curls up next to me on the couch while I'm reading.

Sorry there are not more pictures with this update. Anytime I have the camera Tilly stops whatever she was doing and starts running right at me. I'm going to have to be more stealthy in the future when it comes to picture taking.

05/13/2012:

All I can say is FREEEEEEEDOOOOOOOM! I'm finally allowed to play again! Guess I should explain myself. Well, I got spayed. Talk about fun...right? Anyway, I wasn't allowed to do anything (and I do mean A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G) for days. That was soooo frustrating. I swore up and down I was fine the day after my surgery. I even demonstrated this to FM by sprinting down the hallway in the house and running and jumping on my buddy Hank. FM just about had a heart attack when I did this. The woman just hovered over me for days not letting me run, jump, fetch, or wrestle with my buddy Hank. Heck, if Hank and I even looked at each other FM was saying, "NO." She is such a party pooper. I told her the stitches were in good and tight and that they would hold up just fine if I did a few zoomies around the yard, but again I was denied. Did I mention FM is a party pooper. Well, now I'm past my 5 day mark and I can play with my buddy Hank and love life again. Sorry I'm not writing more of an update for ya, but I've gotta go play!

Hey there y'all...FM here. As you read Tilly was a little bit upset with me for making her stay calm during her recovery. On the third day of her recovery I took Tilly for a short walk. Well, the little bugger had so much energy she started jumping on me nonstop (she never jumps during walks). I ended up having to carry Tilly back home (our neighbors got a good laugh). Good news is that Tilly is back to normal walks and no jumping.

I have to say a special thank you to the ladies at Pinkerton Animal Hospital in Minot. They babied and loved little Tilly from the beginning of her surgery till I took her home. You ladies are so wonderful!

Tilly is still a growing girl. She is now up to 31.5 lbs! Tilly now has the run of our house all night long. Our king size bed is no longer big enough for her, so she likes to have a whole couch or dog bed to herself. Except for during the day, then she will go in and sprawl out on the whole king sized bed.

I've finally got some action pictures of Tilly! I hope you enjoy them.

05/27/2012:

Hey there everyone! Long time no update. Sorry about that. The weather here has been so nice that I have been running around and helping FM plant her flowers. My favorite is the lavender. I could stick my nose in it and smell it all day long. Sometimes I even go and lay in it! Speaking of noses...My foster family keeps me busy around here with their noses. These poor people have dry noses all the time. Well, we all know that a wet nose is a healthy nose, so I do my best to help them out with this. Every morning I jump up on the beds and check everyone's nose. If it is dry (which it always is) I give it a good licking. Anytime I can get to my foster's noses I make sure to give them a thorough licking. I'm really quite worried about them. Their noses never seem to stay wet. Maybe they should go to the vet and get a shot for that!

Did I mention what a great helper I am around the house? FM is always cooking in the kitchen. She is quite the messy cook! For someone who cooks/bakes all the time you would think she could be neater. I do a great job of cleaning up whatever hits the floor. The floor is nice and shiny by the time I'm done cleaning up the mess FM made. I keep telling her that I would be more than happy to pre rinse the dishes before they go in the dishwasher (I've been known to try to get to dishes in the dishwasher while it is being loaded), but FM still won't let me. Oh, FM and FD got a new picnic table a few weeks ago. It was a really windy day when they put it together. I helped them out by laying on top of the table top so that it couldn't fly off. How is that for pitching in and helping? FM says she got a picture of me napping on the table top.

Thank you Tilly for your part of the update, now it is my turn. Sorry we haven't put up an update in 2 weeks. Things around here have been pretty busy.

There is some wonderful news I wanted to share with everyone in RAGOM Land....Tilly just lost her last baby tooth!!!! For all of you out there who foster or have owned puppies, you know how sharp those little puppy teeth are. I did a little happy dance when the last tooth came out. The tooth fairy slipped some special doggie treats under Tilly's bed at night.

Tilly is still growing like a weed! I tried to weigh her on our scale in the bathroom. It showed that she weighed about 10 pounds more than she could possibly weigh. I knew that scale wasn't giving me the right weight when I got on it in the morning! I now have an excuse to pitch it out in the trash. My guess is that Tilly weighs somewhere around 39-41 pounds.

Things are still pretty active around here with our family and Tilly (being a very high energy puppy) loves being in the mix with the action. However, Tilly likes to get a little too into the action. She now likes to jump up on everyone to get attention. We have not encouraged this, and we tell her "down" and then place her front paws on the ground. Now that Tilly is bigger she can throw her weight around a lot more too. For this reason Tilly should not go to a house with children under 5 years old. Unless you have a dog savvy 3-4 year old who knows how to stand their ground with a dog.

Tilly still likes to get a bit nippy at times. When this happens we make her sit in front of us. Then, we then give her itches on her shoulders. After this, we bend over and give Tilly the command "kisses." She will then lick your face. This really seems to work when she gets hipper/nippy. Of course we sometimes have to repeat this 5 more times before she will calm down.

We still go on our daily walks when it is not raining. Tilly still does great! Sometimes she wants to pick up a stick (or 5) along the way to bring home with her. She gets quite miffed at me for not letting her. For a puppy, she can give some dirty looks when she wants to.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

06/10/2012:

Hey there everyone in RAGOM Land! Sorry Tilly isn't doing an update today. She is too busy running around and playing nonstop. I asked her to come in and help out with the update, and she gave me that "teenager look." You know...the, "I'm too busy for whatever you want me to do, and what I'm doing is way more important" look. That's right! Our little Tilly is no longer a puppy...she has morphed into a teenager with an attitude.

Tilly has also grown a lot. I swear she does it overnight too! Tilly is now up to 45 pounds! In 4 more pounds she will weigh as much as our French Brittany, Hank. She is loving the fact that their WWE wrestling matches are pretty much even now. Hank was shocked and floored (literally) when Tilly ran and plowed him down one day. I got a good laugh out of it.

Tilly really is taking after her Aussie side more than anything. She has nonstop energy that she has to burn off all day or she will turn into hyper nippy crazy doggie. My favorite is watching Tilly and Hank chase each other all day long (I swear I burn calories just watching them). Since Tilly has the natural instinct to herd, she anticipates where Hank will run to and then try to cut him off. Hank is used to being the fastest thing in North Dakota (still hasn't caught a jack rabbit...his gold trophy), and is shocked when Tilly cuts him off and tackles him down.

We still work with Tilly and her training everyday. Tilly has now decided that she would like to go faster on our daily walks and has begun to pull on the leash. Since you can not take a dog for runs until they are a year old (it will damage their growth plates) Tilly has had to go on a gentle leader...which she refuses to wear. Again, that wonderful teenage attitude.

Tilly will need the following things in her furever home:

A fenced in yard...her super high energy and instinct to chase and herd can cause her to run off

A home where a family member is home most of the day, so that she can continue to run and play off all her energy

Someone who will dedicate themselves to taking Tilly to obedience classes.

An active family who can keep up with Tilly's active life style

If your home has young children they need to be dog savvy. Tilly will try to herd your children (she does this when my son's friends are over).

Tilly just showed up and wants to add some of her own demands (her words not mine) to the update:

Kongs filled with peanutbutter, treats, retriever rolls, and a ton of toys are a must for me

Multiple walks a day (without that awful gentle leader...it really inhibits my desire to make you walk faster)

You must love to play fetch with me

You must be really good at giving butt, belly, and ear scratches

Preferably another doggie to play with

My own lavender plants to lay and roll in (FM hates it when I do this in her bed of lavender plants everyday...personally I don't see the problem in trying to smell nice)

My own king sized bed...I'm a growing girl who needs to spread out

My own large swimming pool...I hate the heat and need to cool off

Okay, Tilly may have gone off the deep end with some of her demands, but she insisted on putting them in. Teenagers...What can ya do?

Hope everyone out there is enjoying their summer! Soak up all that sun before winter gets here again.

06/20/2012:

Tilly has been adopted....by us! That is right! We are joining the foster failure club. Please drink a toast to our failure

Tilly aka "The Tilly Monster" has nipped and chewed her way into our hearts, and the hearts of our dogs. Somehow, bringing a super energetic puppy into our house has brought peace to our home. Go figure! I'll explain...Our lab, Lady, has suffered from depression and anxiety problems since we moved here from Florida two years ago. Our French Brittany, Hank, has more energy than the Energizer Bunny, and our lab refuses to ever play with him. Well, in comes Tilly. I don't know how, but she brought our lab out of her depression and Hank has a buddy and no longer suffers from ADD. Heck, even Lady is now playing with them!

As for us humans in the house...Well, we love her to death too. She isn't a golden, and she doesn't have that "golden" personality. Instead, she is a little Aussie spit-fire, and we love it!

I would like to make a little plea out there to those who would never consider a mixed breed dog. My husband and I always had pure bred dogs growing up and as adults. Tilly is the first mixed dog that we have ever taken care of, and she is an amazingly smart girl and so loving. If you are someone who only does a pure breed dog I would like you to still consider a mixed breed. They are just as amazing and wonderful (and sometimes smarter) than your pure breeds. For example, Tilly was house broken at 8 weeks of age. The little girl only had one accident in our house and it was my fault. Thank you for listening

Tilly will be starting obedience school in the month to come, and she will let you know how it goes. As you can see from one of the pictures Tilly needs a bit more obedience in her life. She is still blaming Hank for the 2 ft hole in our yard.